The Michigan Wolverines have been under fire for a number of scandals this season, with their latest one taking the Big Ten by storm.
For the last two weeks, the NCAA has been investigating Michigan for stealing signs as reports have emerged that Wolverines analyst Conor Stalions is at the center of the investigation, purchasing tickets to the games of 12 of the 13 Big Ten schools over the last three years.
Michigan has now suspended Stalions with pay, with reports coming from ESPN that the staffer has purchased tickets to more than 35 games over 17 different stadiums in the three-year span, while a former Division-III coach revealed he was paid by Stalions to video games at multiple Big Ten schools.
This led to a 90-minute call between frustrated Big Ten coaches and Commissioner Tony Petitti, according to ESPN, where the former encouraged the latter to take action against Michigan in an “intense” and “emotional” meeting.
“Collectively, the coaches want the Big Ten to act — right now,” said a source familiar with the call, via ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg. “What are we waiting on? We know what happened.”
During the call, the coaches also laid out the significance on Michigan’s schematic advantage due to illegally gaining their opponent’s signals, using words like “tainted,” “fraudulent” and “unprecedented” to describe the school’s actions, according to ESPN.
“People don’t understand the seriousness of it,” said another source, via ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg. “How it truly impacted the game plan. To truly know if it’s a run or a pass, people don’t understand how much of an advantage that was for Michigan.”
Only time will tell whether Big Ten, or NCAA for that matter, will impose penalties towards Michigan.
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